The History Boys. Despite knowing that the world is everything that is the case, Lt. James Lockwood of the First Batallion York and Lancaster Regiment is wounded by friendly fire and dies on the way to the hospital. He is twenty eight.

Author's
Note: So, The
History Boys?
Like my favorite thing, possibly ever. How does one teach? History,
Literature, hell, math. Is it a means to an end or one of those
the-journey-is-the-destination
things?

Ah,
Alan Bennett.

pass
the parcel

Well,
I thought it was time.

1.

Timms
speaks at the funeral. None of the other boys put up too much of a
fight, considering.

Timms
wanted to make sure that everyone listening knew what kind of a man
the lovable Jimmy Lockwood had really been, beneath the pins and the
trainers and the girls that followed him everywhere. He wanted to
remind them of the poetry he memorized when he thought no one was
looking, and the extra free milk he slipped onto doorways where there
was more dust than cement, and the way he'd never looked at Timms
and seen the fat, funny kid who knew how to have a laugh but wouldn't
get laid until he was twenty-one.

He
wanted to make sure that the world knew what it had lost—what it
had lost to stupid
accidents and the desire to go to some fancy college that mistook
architecture for intelligence.

But
in the end, staring down at the pages of words he's written, this
is what comes out as he stares down into the coffin and Jimmy looks
back with dead eyes:

"Fucking
Christ, Jimmy, what am I supposed to do without you?"

2.

The
last thing that Lieutenant James Lockwood sees before the bullet
pierces his belly is not
the slow willow tree which hung ten feet away, smelling slightly of
raspberries for reasons that no one could explain; nor is it the face
of Private Lucas MacElhaney, who accidentally shoots him at
point-blank range; nor is it the sun, swallowing everything,
unseasonably hot for the fall.

The
last thing that he sees is a thin outline of eight boys and their
chaperones, lined up against the backdrop of the crumbling monastery,
stuck on the brink of everything with nothing to retreat into.

The
bullet slices into his stomach, and the last words out of Lieutenant
James Lockwood are, Fuck me, and sorry Jesus.

3.

His
sister, of all people, is the one that least tries to talk him out of
it. She just watches, eyes wide, as he throws his clothes into a
spare suitcase and debates between the stack of old records and the
collection of lighters he's had since he was ten.

He
chooses the lighters and tells her cheerfully that she can have the
records, if she wants them, and good luck finding a record player,
because he just liked the way they looked hung up on the walls. She
laughs.

When
he leaves she leaves his records and his stuff in his room just the
way he left it; she puts her clothes in his dresser and dresses in
his closet and his pins on her shirt and sometimes, when she sits up
late doing homework or talking on the phone, it feels like he's
there.

He
calls once a week and she always answers like this:

All
right, Jim?

Lottie-my-Lottie,
He answers, and she can hear his smile. Are the boys staying away?

And
she always pretends to be confused, because she knows the answer but
she likes to hear him say it, so she asks, Why would they stay away?

'Cause
if any of 'em so much as look at you too long I'll show them all
the neat new gun tricks I've learned.

And
then she tells him about every detail she can think of from the week
before so that he doesn't ever have to wonder about things. She
tells him honestly that their mother is getting worse and money is
tighter than ever and the weather is shit (don't swear, Lottie, you
swear, Jimmy, yeah but I'm not a fuckin' lady, am I?) but her
grades are better than ever and in a few years maybe she'll
go out for Oxford and Cambridge, just like him.

After
half an hour he says he has to go and she says goodbye and then he
waits until she giggles and says, okay, okay, I love you.

That's
what I thought, he answers, smug and confident and Jimmy and when she
closes her eyes she can see him in his uniform, pins hidden
rebelliously under the collar, red trainers shoved under the bed next
to the cigarettes and those lighters he brought from home.

I
miss you, come and visit, she says, because death is not an option or
a possibility when no one's in a war.

And
Jimmy's scratchy voice says into her ear: I'll see you soon, I
promise.

4.

He
gets the acceptance letter from Cambridge and the army in consecutive
weeks. They both start with the same sentence: Mr.
James Lockwood, we would be honored to add you to our roster of this
fine institution.

He
takes dinner with his mother and sister and then goes out with Timms
and the boys to really celebrate. They get piss drunk and he fucks
some girl in the bathroom while her boyfriend buys her a lemonade and
afterwards, when its just them in the abandoned street and his head
is so fuzzy that it looks like the stars are on the ground with them,
he throws his arms around Timms and Dakin and laughs: God save the
fuckin' queen, eh?

And
everybody laughs.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.